ECPI concludes LCA study on DINP

The European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates (ECPI) commissioned PE International to conduct an LCA study with the goal to setup a PlasticsEurope Eco-profile and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) of the plasticiser Di-isononyl phthalate (DINP). A critical review of the study was performed by Denkstatt GmbH.

This EPD describes the production of the Di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) plasticiser from cradle to gate (from crude oil extraction to product at plant, i.e. DINP production site output). This EPD is intended to be used by member companies, to support product-orientated environmental management; by users of plasticisers, as a building block of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of individual products; and by other interested parties, as a source of life cycle information.

Three European DINP producers covering 90% of the European production capacity (EU27) delivered site-specific data for processes under their operational control. The upstream supply chain up to the precursors was modelled based on data from literature as well as GaBi 6 database. One producer additionally supplied primary data for a specific precursor.

ECPI worked with Denkstatt for the validation of the study. They concluded that this is a competent study, which gives a thorough picture about the potential environmental impacts of Di-isononyl phthalate from cradle (crude oil extraction) to gate (product at plant). The study complies with the requirements postulated in the PlasticsEurope Eco-profile and EPD methodology document as well as the ISO 14025. Results presented in the eco-profile and EPD are regarded being up-to-date high quality environmental data of European DINP production.

The final study report is available on the Plastics Europe website.